JPH11146705A - Direction control device such as combine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] At the time of directional control in a combine operation, the right and left detection rods of left and right direction sensors arranged in front and rear and longitudinal directions are formed into shapes that can be synchronized in detection timing. A left sensor (2) and a right sensor (3) that control the straight movement by steering the machine body (1) from side to side by simultaneous detection of the inter-row right and left sides of the vegetation and culm are arranged vertically in front and rear with respect to the traveling direction. A left detection rod 2a and a right detection rod 3a projecting a detectable length from the left direction sensor 2 to the left side and from the right direction sensor 3 to the right side are formed so that their detection timings can be synchronized. Of a direction control device such as a combine.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a directional control device such as a combine and the like, and belongs to the field of a device for simultaneously detecting the left and right sides of a streak and a culm and performing left and right steering in a traveling direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A left and right direction sensor for controlling the straight running by right and left steering of an airframe by simultaneous detection of the left and right sides of a row of planted culms is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), there is a type in which the detection timings of the right and left detection rods are synchronized by arranging the weeding pipes supporting the weeding bodies of the reaper side by side at right and left positions. In this case, since the main body of the direction sensor protrudes from the weeding pipe to the left and right sides, a grain stem close to the weeding pipe may not be detectable, and a blind spot is generated in the detection area.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), generally, the left and right direction sensors are arranged vertically at the front and rear positions of the weeding pipe so that the overhang to the left and right sides is reduced. However, in this front-rear arrangement, both detection rods of the left and right direction sensors are shifted back and forth, and the detection timing is not synchronized, so that a phase difference occurs and the detection accuracy is reduced.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when the left and right direction sensors are arranged at the front and rear positions, both detection rods of the direction sensors are shaped so that the detection timing can be synchronized.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a left sensor 2 and a right sensor 3 for moving the body 1 left and right to control straight ahead by simultaneous detection of the left and right sides of the streaks and culms are used in the traveling direction. A left detection rod 2a and a right detection rod 3a, which are vertically arranged at the front and rear positions and protrude by a detectable length from the left sensor 2 to the left and from the right sensor 3 to the right, respectively.
A direction control device, such as a combine, is formed so that the detection timings can be synchronized.

[0006]

With the above arrangement, the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 for controlling the straight movement of the body 1 by moving the body 1 left and right by simultaneously detecting the left and right sides of the streaks and culms, for example, the left direction sensor 2
Is attached to the weeding pipe that supports the weeds vertically and the right direction sensor 3 is attached to the weeding pipe at the front position, and the detection rod 2a of the left direction sensor 2 can be detected with a fixed backward angle on the left side. As shown in FIG. 1, the detection lever 3a of the right direction sensor 3 is formed on the right side with no operation phase difference with respect to the detection rod 2a of the left direction sensor 2 so as to have a receding angle of the same posture. The detection timings of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 can be synchronized by prolonging the projection to a detectable length.

[0007]

As described above, the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 are disposed at the front and rear positions where the body 1 is steered to the right and left to control the straight traveling by simultaneously detecting the left and right sides of the streaks and culms. The left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 have no operation phase difference as in the related art by forming the detection rods 2a and 3a in the left and right sides with the same posture and with the same inclination angle and protruding, respectively. When the left and right sideways are arranged side by side, there is no problem that the detection area becomes narrow, and when the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 are arranged front and rear vertically so that the detection area is not narrowed, there is no problem that an operation phase difference occurs. It is possible to eliminate the blind spots in the detection areas of the sensors 2 and 3 and reduce the synchronization error of the detection timing, thereby performing highly accurate detection.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 12 shows the overall structure of the combine, and a traveling device 6 having a pair of left and right traveling rollers 5 traveling on the soil surface below the traveling frame 4 of the body 1.
And a grain tank 8 for threshing grain culms supplied by being fed and held by the feed chain 7 on the traveling frame 4 and selectively collecting the threshed grains for temporary storage.
And a threshing device 9 provided with a threshing cylinder 8a.

In front of the threshing device 9, a weeding body 10 for weeding the planted grain culm from the front end side thereof, a raising part 11 for causing the weeded grain culm, and a cutting blade part 12 for cutting the caused grain culm. The cutting device 13 having the grain culm transport portion 45 for transferring the cut culm to the feed chain 7 while changing the culm to the rear side while conveying the harvested culm to the rear side is hydraulically moved from the front end side of the traveling frame 4. The mowing cylinder 14 is driven to move up and down on the soil surface by driving.

An operation device 15 for controlling the operation of the combine is provided on one side of the reaper 13 and an operation seat 1 for this operation.
And an engine 17 is provided below the operation seat 16.
The Glen tank 8 is disposed on the rear side, and a cabin 18 that covers the operation device 15 and the operation seat 16 is provided.
Is provided. A traveling transmission case 19 is mounted on the front end of the traveling frame 4, and a vehicle speed sensor 20 for detecting a vehicle speed is provided on a gear transmission path provided in the transmission case 19, and a driving wheel 21 at the final stage of the transmission is provided. The power is transmitted to the left and right traveling crawlers 5 by means of the traveling device 6, threshing device 9, reaper 13,
The operating unit 15, the engine 17, and the like constitute the combine body 1.

As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the mowing device 13 is configured such that a mowing input case 23 is supported on a mowing frame 22 fixed to an upper end portion of a transmission case 19 so as to be vertically rotatable. A pipe-shaped input vertical case 24 extending downward from the input case 23 is joined to a position near the center of a lower horizontal transmission case 25 provided over the entire width below the mowing device 13. An intermediate vertical case 26 is joined and extended from the vicinity of the left end of the lower horizontal transmission case 25 toward the front and obliquely upward, and each case is connected to a cutting input shaft 27 which is supported by the cutting input case 23. It is configured to transmit power via 25 and 26.

The intermediate vertical case 26 is joined to an upper horizontal transmission case 28 provided on the upper part of the mowing device 13 over the entire width thereof, and directed downward from the upper horizontal transmission case 28 at appropriate intervals. The four lug drive cases 29 protruding from the main body are joined, two of the four lug drive cases are further extended downward, and the stem portion of the cereal stem is conveyed via the left side thereof. The motive power is transmitted to the stock-source collection unit 30 at the center position and the upper and lower two-stage head collection unit 31 at the center position for collecting the tip side.
The power is transmitted to the upper and lower two-stage head collection / feeding unit 31 at the right position where the head of the cereal stem is collected.

The direction is changed from the middle of the intermediate vertical case 26, and via the intermediate vertical case 26, the stock source collection part 30 at the left position for collecting the stock part of the cereal stem and the spike side are collected. The right side of the base for transmitting the power to the upper and lower two-stage spike collection units 31 at the left side, and the base of the grain stem via the right end of the lower horizontal transmission case 25. Collection unit 30
To transmit power.

Each of the central and left and right collection chains 32a,
Driven sprockets 33a, 33b, 33c are provided opposite to the front end sides of 32b, 32c, respectively, and raked star wheels 34a, 34b, 34c are provided below the driven sprockets 33, and the base of the grain culm is respectively provided on the upper side by a rug belt 35. Scraping part 3
6a, 36b, and 36c are configured to extend forward.

A scraping portion 37 having the same structure as the scraping portion 36 is
On the left and right sides, the raked star wheels 38b, 38c and the rag belt 35 serve as raked portions 37b, 37c. Power is transmitted to the 37 side, and the pair of left and right rake portions 36b, c and 37b, c are respectively opposed to each other to form a pair of left and right sides whose front ends are opened in an eight-letter shape. In addition,
The central position is one side of the scraping star wheel 34a and the scraping portion 36.
It is composed of only a.

As shown in FIG. 11, a cutting blade portion 12 for cutting planted grain culms is divided into right and left portions below the raking star wheels 34 and 38, and is arranged over the entire width of the cutting device 13. The cutting blade portion 12 is configured to be able to reciprocate left and right by left and right crank mechanisms 39 respectively supported on both ends of the lower horizontal transmission case 25, and a multi-row planted grain culm is provided at a front end portion of the cutting device 13. Are arranged so as to be close to the soil surface when the cutting device 13 is lowered.

A plurality of weeding pipes 40 supporting each weeding body 10 are connected to the lower horizontal frame 4 on which the cutting blade 12 is mounted.
1, the lower horizontal frame 41 is fixed to the lower horizontal transmission case 25, and the upper part of the plant 10 is directed obliquely rearward from the rear side. A pair of right and left raising portions 11 are arranged to enable raising of the planted grain culm in five rows at a time. The raising case 42 of each raising portion 11 is internally provided with a raising lug 42a.

The harvesting culm from the reaper 13 is removed from the threshing device 9.
In order to adjust the supply depth at the time of supply to the culm, a grain feeding section is provided by a supply lug 43 for supply on the tip side and a supply chain 44 for supply on the supply side provided in the upper and lower two stages on the tip side and the root side. 4
5 is constituted. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.
The analog type left direction sensor 2 and right direction sensor 3 are vertically attached to the weeding pipe 40 of the weeding body 10 corresponding to the center of the pair of left and right pulling parts 11 located on the left side of the front and rear positions, A left detection rod 2a protruding with a certain receding angle to a length detectable in the left direction from the left direction sensor 2 is supported in a rotatable manner, and the right detection rod 3a is moved from the right direction sensor 3 back and forth. The left detecting rod 2a is once projected forward from a rotatably supported supporting position to a rotational supporting position of the left detecting rod 2a, and is bent from this protruding position to a detectable length.
The right and left detection rods 2a and 3a can be detected (e.g., the level of a voltage by a variable resistor or the like) so as to protrude rightward in an inverted L-shape with a receding angle in the same posture as the above. Configure.

The arrangement of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 and the shape of the left and right detection rods 2a and 3a may be in any form without departing from the gist of this embodiment. The weed body 10 is brought close to the soil surface, the body 1 is advanced by the traveling device 6, and the harvested plant culm is cut by the cutting device 13. At the same time, the portion 11 is raised from the root portion of the cereal stem to the tip portion of the cereal stem, and at the same time, the root portion is scraped by the rug belt 35 of each of the scraping portions 36 and 37, and the scraped root portion is removed. It is pinched by the scraping star wheels 34 and 38 and cut by the cutting blade portion 12, and the cut root portion is sent to the collecting chain 32 of each stock collecting portion 30 and is taken over from the collecting chain 32. The stock portion is transferred to the supply chain 44 of the grain culm transfer unit 45 via the collection unit, and the tip is transferred to the supply lug 43.

At the time of such a mowing operation, the weeding pipe 4
The left and right detection rods 2a, 3a having the same posture and shape and having a constant receding angle, projecting to the left and right sides from the left and right direction sensors 2, 3 attached to the front and rear positions at the same time, rotate simultaneously. Since the detection timing can be synchronized by the detection, when the detection phase difference between the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 is zero and the rotation angles of the left and right detection rods 2a and 3a are the same in the left and right directions, FIG. As shown in a), when the phase interval between the left and right stocks is the same, it is determined that the straight line is running in parallel with the stock.

When there is a phase difference between the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3, as shown in FIG. After reading the value several times, the average value is taken and the direction is controlled so as to approach the value. In addition, left and right direction sensors 2,
3 when the detected phase difference of FIG.
As shown in (c), when the arrangement of the right and left stocks is disturbed,
The detection value of one of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 is read several times, and the direction of the direction control is performed with priority given to the stable detection value.

Further, when the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 simultaneously detect and the turning angles of the left and right detecting rods 2a and 3a increase sharply, it means that the stock splitting is started, and the stock splitting is started within a certain period of time. When the stock splitting is performed n times or more, the direction is controlled in the opposite direction so as not to split the stock, and when the detection rod 2a or 3a on the opposite side is detected, the return is performed, and the detection of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 is performed. Redo the control from reading the value.

When the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 come into contact with the grain and generate a detection signal, the output of the direction control is required. At this request, the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 20 is low. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), the pulse output is temporarily stopped after the pulse output is continued for a certain period of time, and if the output request continues thereafter, the pulse output time is reduced in small increments again. With this configuration, the detection time tends to be longer at low speeds, so that the problem of excessive steering due to increased braking force in the direction control is prevented by reducing the braking force with intermittent pulses at the output end stage. be able to.

If the vehicle speed is high when the output for the direction control is required as described above, the pulse output is continued as shown in FIG. Since the detection time tends to be shorter at high speeds by using a configuration in which the output is output with the off-delay for a certain period of time even after stopping, the problem that the braking force of the direction control becomes weaker and the steering becomes insufficient may be reduced. The delay can increase and prevent the braking force.

As another means for weakening the braking force when the vehicle speed is low, as shown in FIG. 6A, a configuration is adopted in which the deviation y from the neutral N of the sensor level for requesting the output of the direction control output is increased. By doing so, at low speed, the pulse output time can be shortened to reduce the braking force, and the problem of excessive steering can be prevented. As another means to increase the braking force when the vehicle speed is high,
As shown in FIG. 6B, by setting the deviation y of the sensor level for requesting the output of the directional control output from the neutral N to be small, the pulse output time is increased at a high speed to increase the braking force, and It is possible to prevent the problem of insufficient orientation.

As shown in FIG. 7, a peak detection value obtained by detecting the rotation angle of both detection rods 2a and 3a of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 using a variable resistor or the like and a vehicle speed sensor 20.
Is calculated based on the detected value of the vehicle speed, and when a peak is detected at a position that does not correspond to the distance between the shares, the detected value is determined as an abnormal detection value x (such as falling seedlings at the time of planting seedlings) and the direction is determined. By adopting a configuration that is not used as control data, it is possible to prevent erroneous steering due to irregular peak detection at the time of inter-stock detection, and to improve performance at the time of direction control.

FIG. 8 (A) shows the detected values of the turning angles of the two detecting rods 2a and 3a of the left and right direction sensors 2 and 3 detected by a variable resistor and the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 20. a) and (b), as shown in FIG.
Or, according to the position where 3a contacts the rice plant, the change rate of the rotation angle with respect to the unit movement distance of the body 1 is (a) when the rice plant is close to the rotation fulcrum of the detection rod 2a or 3a. As shown in the figure, when the rice strain is far, it becomes small as shown in (b). Therefore, the rate of change makes it possible to accurately detect the rice strain without being affected by the size of the rice strain as compared with conventional detection means. it can.

As another embodiment, in an agricultural machine,
Usually, a plurality of controllers are provided to control various operations, and when these controllers fail, repairs can be completed quickly and work can be performed quickly, especially for those with limited operation times such as harvesters. Need to restart. For this reason, as shown in FIG.
A plurality of controllers 51, 52 each having an OM 47, a RAM 48, an EEPROM 49, an A / D converter 50, etc.
n, etc., when the sensors are mounted on the body 1, the initial settings are not constant due to variations in the sensors, mounting tolerances, and the like.
M49 (non-volatile memory) is written, and the contents of the written initial setting values are communicated to the controllers 51, 52n and the like via the communication line 53 so that the same contents can be shared. , 5
2n or the like, the storage is shared, and a control corresponding to each part is performed by an externally provided control switching input 54, and these control contents are arranged, for example, in such a manner that important functions are concentrated on a single controller 51. By doing so, if this controller 51 fails, other controllers 52
n, etc., the minimum function can be secured and the work can be continued.

In the controllers 51, 52n, etc.,
As shown in FIG. 14, signals for rewriting the contents of the EEPROM 49 by communication with the personal computer 55 are collected into a single connector 56, and the wiring 5 of the connector 56
7 has a configuration in which all the signal lines are connected in parallel except for the reset signal, thereby lowering the work efficiency due to the arrangement of the connectors 56 for the individual controllers 51, 52n, etc. It is possible to prevent mistakes in writing the control program and increase in the size of the connector 56 due to independent wiring of individual signal lines, and to reduce the number of wirings 57 by connecting each signal line in parallel. , One write connector 56
, Writing to a plurality of controllers 51, 52n, etc. can be performed. The writing of the controllers 51 and 52n is performed by the controller 51 or 5 that performs the writing.
Identification is performed by releasing a reset terminal such as 2n.

When rewriting the programs of the controllers 51, 52n, etc., as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 15, when writing by communication, transmission of the written contents is requested by selecting the writing program, and reception of the written contents is performed. Thus, the currently written content and the transmitted content are compared, and if they are not the same control program, the writing is not performed. By performing such a restriction, it is possible to prevent mistakes in writing another program when upgrading the program.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the shape of each detection rod of a left and right direction sensor of a reaper.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an attached state of left and right direction sensors of the reaper.

FIG. 3A is a plan view showing an arrangement state of left and right direction sensors of a reaper, which are arranged side by side. (B) The top view which shows the arrangement condition of the left-right direction sensor of the reaper in the front-back vertical direction.

FIG. 4 (a) is an operation diagram of an inter-strain state in which the left and right cereal stems are the same when the left and right direction sensors operate. (B) Operation diagram of the inter-strain state in which the left and right grain stems are different when the left and right direction sensors operate. (C) The action diagram of the inter-strain state in which the left and right grains are disturbed when the left and right direction sensors are operated.

FIG. 5A is a diagram showing sensor output pulses during low-speed work by left and right direction sensors. (B) Diagram showing sensor output pulses during high-speed work by left and right direction sensors.

FIG. 6A is a diagram showing sensor output pulses during low-speed work by left and right direction sensors. (B) Diagram showing sensor output pulses during high-speed work by left and right direction sensors.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the state of peak detection between rice plants by the left and right direction sensors.

FIG. 8A is an operation diagram showing a rotation angle when a rice plant approaches a detection rod of a direction sensor. (B) The operation | movement figure which shows the rotation angle when a rice plant becomes far from the detection rod of a direction sensor.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing the overall configuration of the reaper.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing the overall configuration of the reaper.

FIG. 11 is a plan view showing the entire structure of a cutting blade portion of the cutting device.

FIG. 12 is a side view showing the overall configuration of the combine.

FIG. 13 is a connection block diagram between controllers that can share an initial setting value through communication.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a state in which the controllers are connected in parallel by a single connector.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a write restriction procedure by the controller other than the same contents.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1. Airframe 2. Left direction sensor 2a. Left detection rod 3. Right direction sensor 3a. Right detection rod

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A left direction sensor 2 and a right direction sensor 3 for controlling the straight traveling by steering the body 1 left and right by simultaneous detection of the left and right sides of the row of vegetation and culm are arranged vertically in front and rear with respect to the traveling direction. In addition, a left detection rod 2a and a right detection rod 3a projecting a detectable length to the left from the left direction sensor 2 and to the right from the right direction sensor 3 are formed so that detection timings can be synchronized. Direction control device such as a combine.